LABOR ARBITRATION DOES NOT CONSTITUTE CONSULTATION FOR PURPOSES OF FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE LAW

To:(Name withheld at the person's request.)

Prepared by:Phil Claypool

SUMMARY:

The Code of Ethics provides that each "specified employee" shall file financial disclosure annually. Section 112.3145(2)(b), F. S. 1977. The term "specified employee" is defined in s. 112.3145(1)(b)8. to include "a full-time state employee who, in addition to his regular duties, accepts compensation which in the aggregate exceeds $250 for consultations with other state agencies or with other government or business entities." In CEO 75-141 it was advised that "consultation" could best be construed as the imparting of professional expertise for the purpose of furthering a particular business, private, or professional end of another. Where a state university faculty member privately is engaged as an impartial labor arbitrator and is paid jointly by the parties, he is not employed to lend his talents to further the ends of an individual party to the arbitration; rather, he is neutral in this endeavor and has no particular stake in seeing that either of his employers does well. Consequently, he is not deemed to be engaged in "consultation" and therefore does not constitute a "specified employee" subject to financial disclosure.

QUESTION:

Am I, a faculty member at Florida State University who privately acts as a labor arbitrator, a "specified employee" required to file financial disclosure?

Your question is answered in the negative.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees provides that each specified employee shall file financial disclosure annually. The term "specified employee" is defined to include:

Any full-time state employee who, in addition to his regular duties, accepts compensation which in the aggregate exceeds $250 for consultations with other state agencies or with other government or business entities. [Section 112.3145(1)(b)8., F. S. 1977.]

In your letter of inquiry you advise that you are a faculty member at Florida State University and that privately you have been engaged as an impartial labor arbitrator. You further advise that, under the terms of labor agreements between the parties, you are employed as a neutral for the purpose of making a ruling and are paid jointly by the parties as a condition of this agreement. In addition, you advise that you are employed as an arbitrator under two circumstances. First, you have three permanent "umpireships" for some major firms and unions in which your name is written into the labor agreement; in these cases you arbitrate only when unresolved grievances arise. Otherwise, you are employed by other parties on an ad hoc individual basis from a list of arbitrators supplied by the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services.

The question is whether the income you receive as an arbitrator constitutes compensation for consultations within the meaning of s. 112.3145(1)(b)8., quoted above. We are of the opinion that it does not.

In an early advisory opinion construing the term "consultation," we advised that, for purposes of the Code of Ethics, "consultation" could best be construed as the imparting of professional expertise for the purpose of furthering a particular business, private, or professional end of another. See CEO 75-141. As a labor arbitrator, you are not employed to lend your talents to further the ends of an individual party to the arbitration. Unlike the situation in which a person with an extensive labor-management relations background is hired by one party to improve that party's position in negotiations, an arbitrator is neutral and has no particular stake in seeing that his employer does well.

For this reason, we find that you do not constitute a "specified employee" by virtue of your occasional, private employment as a labor arbitrator. Therefore, you are not required to file financial disclosure annually.